@marillo Globe-News: Letters to the Editor: Beware of Balkanizing 6/29/98

Posted: Monday, June 29, 1998

Web posted Monday, June 29, 1998 5:28 a.m. CT

Beware of Balkanizing

By JAMES FLUEGEL

Letter to the Editor

There's a valuable lesson Americans can learn from what is going on with the Kosovo problem in the Balkans.

Kosovo is a province in Serbia that borders Albania and has a 90 percent ethnic Albanian population, the other 10 percent of the population being Serbian. The Kosovo Albanians are restless.

Political geographers have long theorized that a country with a region more ethnically or culturally similar to a bordering country will have a possible unstable situation inside that border region.

Demographers predict that by 2020, due to immigration and high birth rates, the majority population of the American Southwest and California will be Hispanic. Already a Balkanizing effect is in motion.

A substantial "Aztlan" movement exists in California which advocates the return of the Southwest and California to Mexico. Aztlan rallies are attended by throngs of cheering, exuberant supporters. Aztlan will only grow stronger as the Hispanic population gets larger.

Recently, a Mexico vs. USA soccer match was held in California. Observers noted that the fans were 90 percent Hispanic. Many of them booed and jeered during "The Star Spangled Banner." Members of the U.S. soccer team were pelted with objects when they left the field.

Even if the United States seriously tried to control its Mexican border and its sovereignty, this action may very well cause unrest among some. The former head of California's League of United Latin American Citizens said she considered the border patrol the "enemy of my people." So we know where her first loyalty lies.

Yes, my fellow Americans, we've got a situation on our hands. And it will probably only get worse.